Impact of news on financial markets and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy

Students learn about data and economic events better when they can put their hands on the data or manipulate it. For that reason, we find it valuable to give students hands-on experience with macroeconomic data in the classroom by utilizing Bloomberg data. Though students learn about macroeconomic data by looking at graphs of data, they are more fully engaged when they create such graphs themselves. Making them do this helps to reinforce in their minds the economic relationships they see in the data. They also develop a deeper understanding of both data and theory. Our work in the classroom suggests that such hands-on experiences lead to better retention of classroom material by students, which in turn generates improved test results. We also believe that such learning is of value to the students in later internships and jobs. Thus, we believe that using Bloomberg in the classroom enhances student learning and gives students a better real-life understanding of economics.

Our objective in this paper is to demonstrate how to teach an experiential-learning-based course on macroeconomics and monetary policy by utilizing real- time data and analytical tools available in Bloomberg. Students are engaged in a laboratory setting to analyze issues at the forefront of macroeconomics and monetary policy by assessing the economic and financial markets conditions, coming up with their own diagnosis of the situation and concluding with a prognosis regarding how to deal with the issues at hand. Through this exercise and others like it, we bridge the gap between the theoretical knowledge of the discipline and the practical and real world end of it that historically has not been available to students in economics, the same way students in science laboratories have enjoyed.